Flickchart Road Trip: Hell or High Water

Welcome back to the Flickchart Texas BBQ Road Trip! Last time, we traveled about as far north as one can go in Texas. Now, we travel back down the Panhandle to Lubbock, or technically, to the small town of Wolfforth, where we find one of the highest rated BBQ joints in the state: Evie Mae’s Pit Barbecue!

The town Wolfforth is relatively younger than most of the locations we’ve visited, established in 1916 as a railroad town. Like the previously visited Bryan, Wolfforth rests right on top of a nearby college town, Lubbock, home of Texas Tech University. The entire area forms the 11th most populous city in Texas, and is nicknamed the Hub City for being a center of commerce for the South Plains area of Texas. The nearby land is a huge cotton-growing area and is thus highly dependent on irrigation. The area is also noted for being business-friendly and a great place for small business owners to start out. It also has one of the top high schools in the nation.

The land was originally part of the shifting domain of the Comanche, before American settlers moved in and established the county in 1876. Named after Texas Ranger Thomas Lubbock, the town of Lubbock would eventually form by 1890 after merging with another town and was incorporated in 1909. The college that would become Texas Tech was founded in 1923. The area also became home to an Air Force base during World War 2, which then would be reorganized several times before closing in the 1990s. The college began to grow along with the city, and though not too many notable historical events occurred, Lubbock wasn’t without activity. A tornado struck in 1970, there was one of the nation’s first famed UFO events in the 50s, and in 1988 many came to the city after an apparition of Mary had supposedly been seen.

Evie Mae’s Pit Barbecue has got to be part of that history. Originally opened as a food truck in 2015, Arnis and Mallory Robbins named the place after their daughter and it quickly exploded in popularity. Using a mixture of oak and apple wood, their product stands out among the best in Texas and led to them quickly getting a full-blown restaurant. One has to show up early to avoid waiting in super long lines. Unlike many places, the Robbins don’t come from some dynasty of Texas BBQ. They were in landscaping before opening in 2015.

This hasn’t affected their food, as I got try a variety of morsels including brisket, pork ribs, spicy green chili sausage, and brisket burnt ends. As for sides, I tried spicy green-chili cheese grits and a chocolate pecan pie for desert. The brisket was superb and one of the best I’ve had in my many visits. With a perfect amount of fatty flavor, and dark bark, this brisket is what Texas BBQ is all about. The pork ribs were also excellent with some wonderful seasoning, and were smoked to an easy tender pull. The sausage was also strong and flavorful and stands out as one of the best sausages I’ve had. My bite of brisket burnt end wasn’t too different from the brisket, just an even saltier and more succulent bite. Those grits were also top-of-the-line side material, with a cheesy, smooth, and spicy flavor. And the desert? Well worth getting. Sweet and excellently made, this reminds you that BBQ restaurants can have full course offerings and be excellent on every count.

I award the brisket 4.5 slices out of 5, the pork ribs 4 oinks out of 5, the sausage 4.5 links out of 5, and the burnt ends 4.5 slices out of 5! I award Evie Mae’s Pit Barbecue 5 smokers out of 5!

While filmed in New Mexico, Hell or High Water is specifically set in West Texas, with the long empty stretches of it serving as a plot point of sorts for the film. Written by Texas-native Taylor Sheridan (who would go on to write and direct several other excellent films and create the hit series Yellowstone), Sheridan captures perfectly the modern West Texas culture. Which, despite being set decades later than other West Texas films we’ve covered, still involves land ownership, poverty, and the nature of handing things down to the next generation. Hell or High Water fits well with Lubbock given its probable location.

Following two brothers who are robbing banks to save their land, and the two Texas Rangers going after him, Hell or High Water is a classic cops-and-robbers film on its surface. But under that surface is a film ripe with commentary on the nature of wealth, the moral subjectivity of theft, and the desperation that the desolation of West Texas brings to people.

The script slowly doles out information about the characters and their background in perfect concert with the events of the film, building up the body of the characters and the hurtling towards an inevitable conclusion for the plot. It’s no wonder it was Academy Award-nominated; this is one of those movies that feels nearly perfectly written.

But the actors deserve plenty of credit too. Ben Foster and Chris Pine both give close to career-best performances. Both are unshaven, and look dirty and desperate. Pine’s eyes convey a wealth of information about the character, as does Foster’s simper and smart-alec grin, bordering on anarchy. Foster successfully pulls off a character that seems on the brink of broken.

Jeff Bridges is likewise strong as the mildly racist Texas Ranger close to retirement, yet pulling off one last desperate search. You feel his character pinning his chase of the brothers to his own personal search for meaning and purpose. Bridges is at a stage in his career where he pulls off grizzled and snark with absolute ease.

Director David Mackenzie deserves credit as well. He captures the open emptiness of the landscape and he paces Sheridan’s script to keep you wrapped up with the characters and the plot. Your sympathies slide and shift as Mackenzie stages the scenes to keep you pivoting back and forth, even from line to line occasionally.

The film has a damn excellent country soundtrack. Nothing is more Texas than country music, and this film uses some of the best independent and classic country artists to score it. Characters sing along to Waylon Jennings’ “You Ask Me To,” while Colter Wall’s “Sleepin’ on the Blacktop” punctuates another notable scene. Great Texan songwriters Townes Van Zandt and Ray Wylie Hubbard also have songs here.

Hell or High Water is about as Texan of a film as it gets, and it’s an excellent one. With tense shootouts, deep and engaging character work, miles of endless Texan highways, and plenty of Lone Star and Shiner Bock, Hell or High Water perfectly captures an exciting view into one part of modern Texas life.

Does anyone eat BBQ in the film?

While there is one excellent and notable scene revolving around food (“What don’t you want?”), there is no BBQ eaten surprisingly.

Texas Film Chart

1. The Last Picture Show
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Hell or High Water
4. Rushmore
5. A Ghost Story
6. Hud
7. Blood Simple
8. The Tree of Life
9. Boyhood
10. Paris, Texas
11. The Right Stuff
12. Lone Star
13. Chef
14. Bernie
15. Giant
16. Apollo 13
17. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
18. Leadbelly
19. Krisha
20. Tender Mercies
21. Dazed and Confused
22. Dallas Buyer’s Club
23. JFK
24. The Sugarland Express
25. Terms of Endearment
26. Urban Cowboy
27. American Violet
28. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
29. Planet Terror
30. Frank
31. Whip It
32. Natural Selection
33. This is Where We Live
34. The Junction Boys
35. The Alamo
36. Song to Song
37. Outlaw Blues
38. Selena
39. Nadine

Texas BBQ Chart

1. Franklin Barbecue
2. Evie Mae’s Pit Barbecue
3. Pinkerton’s Barbecue
4. Killen’s Barbecue
5. Terry Black’s Barbecue
6. Pecan Lodge
7. Stiles Switch BBQ
8. Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ
9. Hutchins Barbeque
10. Joseph’s Riverport Bar-B-Que
11. Pody’s BBQ
12. Tyler’s Barbeque
13. Blue Moon BBQ
14. Corkscrew BBQ
15. 2M Smokehouse
16. Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que
17. La Barbecue
18. Hays Co. Bar-B-Que
19. Roegels Barbecue
20. Tejas Chocolate + Barbecue
21. Smolik’s Smokehouse
22. Louie Mueller Barbecue
23. Miller’s Smokehouse
24. Lockhart Smokehouse
25. Heim Barbecue
26. Truth Barbeque
27. Fargo’s Pit BBQ
28. Gatlin’s BBQ
29. City Market
30. Baker Boys BBQ
31. Kreuz Meat Market
32. Stanley’s Famous Pit BBQ
33. Micklethwait Craft Meats
34. Payne’s Bar-B-Q Shak
35. The Pit Room
36. Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que
37. The Smoking Oak
38. Heavy’s BBQ
39. Harris Bar-B-Que